The centenary year included a special history outing for Salter enthusiasts to visit Fairby Grange in Kent. This beautiful country house was bought for the Salters in 1918 by wealthy Quaker donors.
The Grange became a residential care home in the 1960s and is a friendly, family-run establishment. We were invited to talk about history over tea and cakes, and the owners then showed us some of the old rooms, still looking much as they might have done in the Salters’ day.
Local historian, Gerald Cramp, provided a detailed time-line of Fairby Grange and displayed his wonderful collection of historic documents relating to the building. He also introduced Charles Ellerby, who gave us copies of Hartley Village - 1912-1974, a delightful little book written and illustrated by his father, depicting rural Kent as it was when Alfred Salter first knew it.
The story of Fairby Grange
As Quakers, Ada and Alfred Salter always campaigned for peace and against war. They supported Conscientious Objectors, who refused to become soldiers and kill fellow human beings. In 2014 at the start of World War ll, a No-Conscription Fellowship was set up to help COs and their families. It had nearly 10,000 members and helpers. Alfred became its Treasurer, and Ada worked with the Maintenance Department, raising funds for the dependants of COs.
Many COs became seriously ill from the bad treatment they received, and the NCF wanted somewhere that they could convalesce. Ada had long been interested in the small-holdings movement, which encouraged urban workers to grow produce in the countryside and sell it to co-operatives in the cities. The village of Hartley in Kent had a farm and land owned by the small-holdings movement. Its farmhouse, Fairby Grange, was a beautiful 17th century country house with extensive grounds, and when it was put up for sale, it attracted the Salters’ interest.
It cost £7,500, but the Salters found wealthy donors among their Quaker community. They bought it and set it up as: 1) a haven for recuperating COs; 2) a pacifist, anti-militarist camp for boys; 3) a co-operative farm that would work with their co-operative bakery in Bermondsey; and 4) later on, a convalescent home for working women and mothers.
There is a letter from Alfred to one of the potential donors, giving details of how Fairby would be run. It was not intended to make a profit, but would break even by selling farm produce. Bermondsey ILP took possession of Fairby Grange in August 1918, and it was run by a trust of Quakers, with Alfred as general manager.
After the war Ada made use of Fairby, growing fresh vegetables to be sold by the bakery, and trees and flowers to supply her Beautification Committee, making the council self-sufficient in saplings and becoming their ‘sole horticultural supplier’.
In 1923 when the Trust wound up and donated Fairby Grange to Bermondsey Council, it became the first municipal convalescent home for mothers in Britain. It was primarily for mothers recuperating from childbirth and women suffering from ‘exhaustion’. During 1933 for example, 239 mothers had a convalescent stay there.
The Borough sold the building in the 1950s, and it became a retirement care home in the 1960s.
